320 W. H. WEED — TWO MONTANA COAL FIELDS. 



from the mountains through a sharp cut in the upturned limestones 

 above the town, flows through the bowlder-tilled channel, whose well 

 grassed valley slopes show no exposures until the town is reached. 



To the westward, crossing the broad benchland cut by shallow grassy 

 drains, the low ridge about 3 miles from the town forms the terminal 

 edge of a rising alluvial or wash slope or cone, the drift being wholly 

 local and mainly limestone from the neighboring mountain slopes. 

 About the head of a considerable drainageway that has cut down into the 

 soft sandstones overlying the coal measures, the strata are seen to dip 

 gently southward toward the fault. The rocks are mainly sandstones, 

 rather soft, and weathering into loose sands that form smooth grassy 

 slopes, with intercalated clayey shales and more rarely thin beds of lime- 

 stone. Westward the country is more broken and the slopes show simi- 

 lar southward-dipping beds, while toward the north the broad bench 

 lands continue for many miles. East of Red Lodge the branches of Bear 

 creek, a lateral tributary of Clarkes fork, have cut back the bench, form- 

 ing a deeph' gullied and hilly country, locally called " badlands." Here 

 the coal measures lie much flatter than at Red Lodge, and the coal seams 

 have been prospected at a great number of points. It is a promising part 

 of the field, but is dependent upon a railroad for its development. 



Red Lodge Mines. — The only mines now operated in the Rocky Fork 

 field are those of the Rocky Fork Coal company at Red Lodge; to Dr. 

 Fox, the manager, and the other officers of this company, I am indebted 

 for many courtesies and much information. Six seams have been worked 

 three of which are not being mined at present, owing to their inferiority 

 to the others. The seams have an average thickness as follows : Number 

 i (most southerly seam mined), 6 to 7 feet ; number ii, 7 to 10 feet; num- 

 ber hi, 6 to 7 feet ; number iv. 12 to 13 feet; number v, 12 feet; number 

 vi, 5 feet. 



Number vi is geologically highest of those worked, but 120 feet above 

 it there is a 3-foot scam of coal, and 600 feet farther up the creek an 18- 

 inch seam of coal. Below number vi there are nine seams outcropping 

 in the creek bluff, of which five show over 6 feet of coal, the best being 

 perhaps number viii. The farthest seam is about a mile below the mines 

 and is opened by a drift 100 feet long. The coal is 6 to 7 feet thick, strikes 

 east-and-west magnetic, and dips 10° southward. The rocks between 

 this seam and the mines are sandstones and gray shelly shales, barren 

 of fossils and strictly conformable. No outcrops occur below this seam. 



Number i is no longer mined. It is the original " Yankee Jim " seam, 

 and is a good coal ; but the other seams are worked cleaner. The tunnel 

 was not safe to enter, owing to gas, so that no section was obtained. 



Seam number ii is opened by an entry main 2,000 feet in length. Cross- 

 sections of this seam, made at the end of this entry, and of seam number 



